A traditional wall for residential or light commercial/industrial buildings in the United States is made from soft wood 2".times.4" studs which are vertically oriented and horizontally spaced on 16 inch centers, being capped at the top and the bottom with a 2".times.4" header and footer, respectively. This frame is then sandwiched between gypsum board panels, sometimes referred to as "drywall".
Walls made of wooden 2".times.4" construction which do not go all the way to the ceiling, and define pony walls, stud walls or cubicle walls are naturally not as strong as the wall would be if it went all the way to the ceiling and was anchored to the ceiling joist structure. However, 2".times.4" wooden stud construction is strong enough that free standing walls which don't reach the ceiling, or short walls terminating midway across a room, would nevertheless be strong enough with the drywall sheathing to stand up to normal use without additional support.
Relatively recently a sheet metal channel stud has been introduced to the building industry as a replacement for the wooden 2.times.4 stud. Wall construction utilizing steel studs ordinarily incorporates steel tracks at the bottom and top of the wall. The steel tracks are similar in shape to the studs but are slightly wider to seat the stud top and bottom end within the tracks. The studs are fastened to the track with sheet metal screws, and drywall is subsequently applied in a manner similar to that in which it is applied to wooden stud walls when drywall screws are used instead of nails. If there is a free-standing end of a wall, it is capped with a length of track, rather than a stud, as the track is somewhat stronger, is the right finished dimension, and has no pass-through holes for electrical conduits and pipes.
The advantage of steel stud and track construction is that it is substantially cheaper than wooden stud construction. A drawback, however, is that steel stud construction is not as rigid or strong as wooden construction. Steel stud walls tend to be somewhat flimsy, despite the contrary positions taken by its proponents. Whereas a normal steel-stud wall is adequately strong to stand up in daily use, a short wall which does not reach the ceiling, particularly one which terminates in the middle of a room leaving an unsupported end wall, is scarcely adequate to sustain the ordinary abuse that it will take, without overhead support. A pony wall, having both ends free-standing and not reaching the ceiling, is very inadequate from a rigidity and strength perspective when made with sheet metal steel studs.
There is a need for a means to reinforce these short, pony, stub, or cubicle walls when they are made with track and steel stud construction so that they are equally strong, or even stronger, than similar walls made according to the techniques of conventional wooden stud construction.